Identity in Money vs Identity in Christ

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And it's available in all 50 states and around the world. Learn more at chministries.org slash faith buy. The late author and pastor Tim Keller wrote, if our identity is in our work rather than Christ, success will go to our heads and failure will go to our hearts.

Hi, I'm Rob West. It's tempting to let work or status or material things define you. Today, we'll talk about how your identity in Christ provides more lasting satisfaction than financial success ever can. Then we'll take your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is faith and finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, identity is a hot issue right now in our culture, and there's a lot of pressure to define ourselves according to worldly standards. But as Tim Keller reminds us, our identity isn't found in what we do or what we have, but in Jesus. For Christians, Jesus is enough.

We don't need money or success or any other worldly thing to prove our value or provide security. In fact, we are adopted as children of the King himself with an inheritance better than any 401k can provide. Here's what it says in John 1 12, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

That's good news. Believers in Christ are marked for eternity as part of God's own family, the church. So why do so many believers look so worldly? Well, the sad truth is many believers have forgotten their true identity in Christ because they're trying so hard to be comfortable to succeed and to be accepted. Unfortunately, these are desires that only God can fill.

So trying to achieve them on your own is a recipe for frustration. Here's what happens when your identity is rooted in money instead of Jesus. First, when you base your self-worth on how much you have, you'll look down on those who have less than you and envy those who have more.

The Bible warns against these sins of pride and envy. Second, when you let money define you, you're constantly comparing yourself to others, worrying about your finances and struggling to improve your circumstances. The end result is disillusionment and fear because when you're all about the money, it's never going to be enough. And third, when you let money, success, or influence define you, you put your personal value in what you do. You start believing that your identity is found in your work or your income or your spending choices. Ultimately, money and success do not bring peace and they won't buy you a ticket to heaven.

As we quoted earlier, when success goes to your head, failure goes to your heart. So what do you do if you're tempted to place your identity in what you do or how much you have? Well, Christians can avoid the trap of using external things like money to determine our identity by remembering that our true identity is in Christ.

No need for pride or shame or comparisons. We are sinners saved by grace, resting in Christ alone who does not change. Galatians 3 28 says, In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. You see, it doesn't matter what your job is or whether you just remodeled your kitchen. The size of your bank account or where your kids go to school doesn't determine your value as a person.

Your identity is not about what you do or what you have. You are made right before God because of Jesus in you, your hope of glory. So why do we so often choose to be selfish or fearful or proud? Well, we are still living in a broken and fallen world.

We're works in progress, you might say. Just like little kids, we have to learn things the hard way sometimes. But our loving Father in heaven keeps calling us back to himself. No matter what happens to you financially, your status as a child of God gives you the right to call on him for provision, help and peace. No need for fear or guilt.

You are no longer a slave to worldly values and you're not alone. You see, your brothers and sisters in Christ are here to help you. And the Holy Spirit gives you God's power to face life's ups and downs with hope. So if you believe Jesus is the Son of God and acknowledge his work on the cross saves you from sin, your identity is secure as a child of God, forgiven and free. Your hope is eternal and your inheritance in Christ will last forever. If you want the full story, I would encourage you to read Romans 7 and 8. And by the way, we're on a journey exploring this together at Faithfi.

So jump into the Faithfi community, read some articles and check out the Faithfi app when you visit faithfi.com. All right, your calls are next. The number 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000.

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I'm Rob West. This is the program where the 2300 verses on money and possessions found in God's Word intersect with today's financial decisions and choices. The number to get in on the conversation, 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. All right, let's go to Miami, Florida to begin today.

Jessica, go right ahead. Yes, I was asking that if I have a life insurance with a rider for critical illness. I am in my 50s and do I need to keep it or or or change it to a non-rider? Yeah, so that would shield you from some bills in a health emergency, but it's important to weigh the pros and the cons on that. I mean, you know, the benefit of of this coverage is that it does provide some specialized, you know, offsetting of risk here. But it's important that you take the time to research it, especially, you know, if you have a family history of the the illness that would be covered. It can alleviate some of your financial, you know, concern in the event that you became too sick to work. But often, you know, the downside is that certain illnesses may not be covered. For instance, some types of cancer may not be covered and some chronic illnesses are frequently exempted. If you have a recurrence of a critical illness, such as a second stroke or heart attack, you may not receive a payout. The benefit is, though, that it would provide that lump sum of money when you're diagnosed with an illness under the policy. And so it's, it really does come back to, you know, whether this is something that you are predisposed to, you have a family history of, and what is the added cost for that particular rider. Often they are low cost.

And so that's the upside, but they do often have limited coverage. And so I think you just need to understand exactly what you're buying, what does it cover, but also, and perhaps more importantly, what does it not cover. And then once you understand that, make a decision as to whether or not, you know, it fits into your budget, and it gives you added peace of mind. I wouldn't say it's something you should automatically drop. But I think you do need to weigh the coverage and you need to look at, at the cost in light of your overall budget.

If it fits in your budget, and you feel like it covers the illnesses you were expecting it to, especially if you have a family history of any of those, then I think it can be a good option. Yes, yes, yes. Thank you.

Okay, very good, Jessica. Thanks for calling today. We appreciate it. We've got a few lines open.

800-525-7000 is the number to call. And we'd love to tackle whatever you're thinking about financially today. You know, when it comes to thinking about insurance, often we think that perhaps having insurance is a lack of trust in God. I don't look at it that way. I think, ultimately, what we need to recognize is that part of being a good steward is to address the risks that exist. Now, I just believe it's good stewardship. Ultimately, our trust is in the Lord. But having insurance, I think, is a part of what a faithful steward does to be able to offset those risks in your life. Doesn't mean we put our trust in those things, but it does mean it's a part of a well-thought-out financial plan.

To Florida, Colin, go ahead, sir. What information, what data are you looking at that tells you that interest rates on homes are going to drop over the next year? Yeah, so this is, you know, economists, as they look out and project these interest rates, they look at the fed funds rate and then they look at how that will affect mortgage interest rates. And obviously, nobody knows for sure where these numbers are going. But the best estimate and this obviously every time the Fed continues to keep rates intact or we have the possibility of raising, you know, what we've seen with this recession is we expected it to come this year.

It looks like it's probably been pushed out to next year. And that's largely driven by just the strength of the consumer because of the balance sheets, the savings they had built up post COVID and the resilience of the job market, which has been incredibly strong. Both of those things have kind of pushed the looming recession that most economists think we have out into 2024. But the best case thinking is, at least at this point, based on how we're projecting the Fed to proceed into next year, is that we'll begin to see those rates dip down into the high fives by the end of next year. Now, is that guaranteed? Absolutely not. This is just kind of the consensus of economists when you look across the board.

And, you know, what's that worth? Probably not a whole lot other than just it's, you know, some good thinking being brought to bear on the current economic environment that's tenuous at best, and certainly continues to be uncertain. Does that make sense?

It does. So your confidence is not extremely strong, and that's just what could happen. That's exactly right. I mean, that's that's what kind of the consensus of economists who forecast rates are saying now. I wouldn't necessarily make decisions on that. We've been telling people, you know, the key is when you're ready to buy, buy, you know, because as long as you've got a sufficient down payment, as long as you can afford the mortgage, often when we're buying a home, we're not doing it as an investment. Yes, we wanted to appreciate, but by definition, we would buy and sell investments when they accomplish their purpose.

And that's not the way we approach our homes because we live there. So if you're needing to buy a house, I would say, go ahead and do that, even if you have to refinance a couple of years down the road. But just based on what we know today, we're expecting, you know, to hit a five handle on those mortgage rates by the end of next year. Could that slip into 2025?

Absolutely it could. So that's just, you know, best case thinking at this point. Colin, we appreciate your call today. Thanks for being on the program.

To Orlando, Florida. Hi, Roberto. Go ahead. Hi, good afternoon, Rob.

Thank you for taking my call. I have a quick question that we had some money on the saving account in Wells Fargo Bank, and one of the representatives was trying to offer us the possibility to, uh, rolling to, uh, switching from the saving into a CD that they will pay like, um, a federal interest rate if we get the, uh, certain amount of money for at least a year. Yeah.

So what did you talk about? Yeah. I mean, you're not going to get a whole lot more. Um, I mean, right now the best, uh, high yield savings, we're seeing a five percent, most of them, the high yield online banks are at four and a half. Um, about the best you're going to find right now on a one year CD with FDIC insurance, um, is going to be about 5.6. So you're going to get somewhere between a point, a half a point to a point, um, in additional interest, uh, over 12 months. How much money are we talking about? Well, if they were asking, you know, that just put, uh, uh, about 50, 50,000, 50,000. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I mean, so you're talking an extra $500 if you lock it up for 12 months, uh, you know, potentially, um, you know, could be as little as a $250.

I mean, that's not insignificant, but we're not talking a ton of money here. So that's where I think you have to decide, do I want to lose access to it for a year and get an extra half a point to a point or do I want to keep it completely liquid in high yield savings? I think the key is don't just automatically assume your local bank is going to give you the best rate.

I'd be heading to bankrate.com to see who's offering the most attractive interest rates right now, whether it's high yield savings or CD. Does that make sense? Yes. Um, Matt, do we have a time for another quick question? We don't, unfortunately we're out of time, but Roberto, I'd love to get you back on the program tomorrow. So if you want to stay on the line, our people, our team will try to help you do that. Thanks for your call, sir. This is faith and finance.

We'll be back after this. We're grateful for support from movement mortgage who provides residential home loans in all 50 States guided by a mission to love and value people and a goal to redefine the mortgage process movement seeks to help others achieve their financial goals. You can find out more at movement.com slash faith movement mortgage LLC supports equal housing opportunity and MLS number 39179 for licensing information, please visit NMLS consumer access.org. We are grateful for support from Praxis mutual funds. Praxis mutual funds has seven impact strategies that are designed to create positive real world change. More information is available at Praxis mutual funds.com. The funds investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses are contained in the prospectus and summary perspectives.

This and other information is available at Praxis mutual funds.com investments involve risk principal loss is possible for side fund services LLC. Welcome back to faith and finance. I'm Rob West. Let's head to Miami. Hi, Marlene. Go ahead. Good afternoon, brother West.

My name, I mean, I'm sorry. I retired after 35 years ago working for the county, the Miami day County police department. However, as you know, you get one check per month. That check is $2,800 a month. So I have to tap into my deferred comp.

Now it might be first comp. I have over 500,000. Part of it is dropped money. Part of it is, you know, the deferred comp that I, that I earned for me that I put into for so many years. And another chunk is from, you know, part of my related, my ex-husband anyways, my problem is that I wanted to just go ahead with part of that money. I owe $84,000 in my home and I thought, Oh good. I just take $84,000 out and I paid my home.

And everyone is suggesting that I don't do that because of the taxes that I'd have to pay. The other question that I had, that's one question, but the other question that I had is that should I, all this money that I have, I put it all in that same bank. Should I split that money and put it somewhere else?

Or could I just leave that all together? Part of it is gaining interest and part of it, I have it frozen. I don't want to lose that money as a stock, you know, goes up and down.

So I was just wondering about those two questions. Okay, very good. Do you have any surplus just on the income you're receiving every month where you could accelerate your payoff out of current cashflow?

No, because since I'm only 60 years old, I have to tap into that money and take out $2,000 a month, which converts into $1,600 a month. Okay. And you're pulling that from the half a million? Right. All right. So what I would typically tell you is, you know, take only about $20,000 a year from that, which would be that $1,600 a month you're taking.

So that's great. If you were to pay off the house, how much would you need to pull instead of $1,600? How much would you be able to reduce that by? If the house is paid for, that's it. I would just use the money that I get from the FRS.

So you would be able to get rid of that entire $1,600 a month payment. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So at that point, you'd have $420 left in there, but you wouldn't have to pull anything out of it. Is that right? Exactly.

Yeah. And, you know, when you think about this, I mean, what's the reason to pay it off? Would you just, is it the peace of mind? Do you have a conviction to be debt-free? Do you want to get rid of, you know, having to pull something out of this account every month, and therefore you could be more conservative with your investments? What's the primary driver behind you wanting to pay it off right away?

My thing was, you know, I'm working for the police department and seeing how my friends got, you know, so much money and now they have nothing. I want to make sure that, you know, I don't lose this money. The thing is that I thought if I was to pay off the house, that's one thing that I don't have to worry about. All I have to do, and, you know, but I also don't want to have to spend $30,000 extra just because I'm pulling it out. Yeah.

Well, you shouldn't have to. I mean, I would imagine you're in a fairly low tax bracket right now because you're not working any longer and tax rates are low. They're going up. So, you know, down the road, I mean, for instance, unless, you know, we get a conservative administration in the next election that would extend this, President Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which has resulted in these low tax rates that we're experiencing today, that expires in 2025. So that, you know, you could make the case that if you split it up over two tax years, that if you pull half of it this year and half of it next year, you'd be paying much less tax because you're over 59 and a half.

You won't have any penalty. So you just add $40,000 to your taxable income and your CPA could tell you exactly what you would spend in taxes, but it's certainly not going to be, you know, 30 or 40%. It's probably going to be more like 20%. But, you know, that's still a significant sum of money. I mean, that's $16,000 on 80 grand. And so that, you know, that means all of a sudden now you're spending $96,000. The other downside to pulling it out is you don't have the ability for it to recover. And so if, you know, that drop money has ridden down with the market because it's invested, now you're selling it out and you don't have the potential for it to recover.

Now, it's probably going to go down more later this year, early next year as we get into a recession, which most economists are expecting. But that's why we take a long term view because, you know, you need this money to last if the Lord tarries and you're in good health, you know, three decades or more. And so the idea that you could keep as much in there working for you as possible, let it recover with the market, that would be ideal. And then you just keep taking your 1600 a month. But if you just have a real conviction that, no, I'd like to be debt free, and I'd like to be debt free as soon as possible, then I'd say you go for it.

And I would just work with your CPA to determine the schedule on pulling this out over the next two or three years to minimize the tax impact. Does that make sense? Yes, that makes sense. There was something else that I was well, the second part of your question was the 300,000. So where is that money? You said it's, it's frozen, but it's not earning interest. No, it's in the same place. I just don't want to play with it.

I mean, it's fine. It's over $500,000. So like 200,000. I have it invested in different stocks, you know, that still with a deferred comp, as you know, the same thing that's doing what I was working. So but you know, that fluctuates, you know, one year I made 20,000 one year, I lose what, you know, I think you need to try to take a rules based approach to this and say, Okay, what's the right allocation for a 60 year old person who's living on their investments? Well, it's probably somewhere around a 5050 allocation, maybe 4060 where you've got 40% in stocks and 60% in bonds.

So I think the question is, how are you positioned and what portion of this is at the risk of the market on a $500,000 portfolio I bet as 60 years old and retired, I'd probably not want more than 50% 250,000 in stocks, and possibly, you know, no more than 200,000. And then we put the balance into bond type fixed income investments. Does that make sense? Oh, yes.

Is it that's where it's added some fix. Okay, good. Yeah. So I think that's great. And that's the idea here, that you know, you want to play out. And I think that's the right approach. But you don't want to get caught up in the short term moves of the market, you want to take the long term view. So I'd go back, check your investment allocation, make sure you've got all of it working for you. But you have no more than, you know, 40 to 50% in stocks, the rest in bonds, and then decide how you want to approach the house either. Let's ride this out for the next five years and, you know, try to pay it off as you can.

Or let's do it over the next couple of years by pulling from that, that retirement account and pay it off before the tax rates head up. We appreciate your call, Marlene. I hope that helps you today. Thanks for being on the program. Well, that does it for us today. I'm Rob West. I hope you'll join us again next time right here on Faith and Finance. Faith and Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you.